Hawks play waiting game
Other than their annual bye week, the Seattle Seahawks don’t get many opportunities to kick their feet up, sack out on a couch and watch football on a Sunday afternoon.
But today will afford them just that kind of day, what with a Monday night date with the Oakland Raiders on tap.
But not every Seahawk is happy to spend his day of rest with … well, a day of rest.
“I’d rather be playing,” defensive end Grant Wistrom said. “Anytime you have to sit around a hotel all day, whether (the game is on) Sunday night or Monday night or whatever, that’s not fun.”
Center Robbie Tobeck is also a Monday Night hater.
“I’d rather play on Sunday,” he said. “I don’t really care about it. It’s like a preseason game, where you wait around all day in a hotel. You’re playing on Monday, so you’re that much more tired and sore the whole next week.”
Not that the Seahawks will get the entire day off. The team will take part in a walk-through practice at some point this afternoon, then head to a local hotel tonight so they’ll get a night free of at-home distractions.
After that, there’s a whole lot of waiting Monday as the game approaches.
But that’s fine with most players and coaches, who will take the distractions because it means that they get to play on national television.
“The hard part for me is sitting around and waiting for the game on Monday,” Seahawks coach Mike Holmgren said. “But I’ve kind of gotten used to that over the years.”
Raiders coach Art Shell is one of the few people who have both played and coached on Monday Night Football. Shell was part of a remarkable string of Raiders teams that went 19-2-1 on MNF, while he sports a more modest record of 5-5 as a head coach in Monday games.
Unlike Seattle’s Tobeck and Wistrom, Shell loves Monday Night Football.
“The world of football is watching you,” he said. “They’re watching to see how you compete, how you do things. They’re not just the United States; it’s all over the world, people are watching that doggone game. And you want to go out there and do your best. I think it brings out the best in all the players, because they don’t want to look bad on national TV.”
Added Holmgren: “If a guy has a good game, or (Joe) Theismann talks about a guy a lot, or John Madden talks about a guy a lot, then that sticks in people’s minds.”
The Seahawks (13-8, .619 winning percentage) and Raiders (36-22-1, .610) are both among the top 10 franchises in terms of MNF winning percentage,